Commentary: Science come first for Obama's 'green team'

A president's cabinet picks say a lot about his priorities. Barack Obama's latest choices say he is determined to combat global warming and to put smart people in charge of the fight.

The president-elect has tapped a "green dream team" that includes a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and a chemical engineer whose career has been distinguished by efforts to curb greenhouse gases.

Together, Steven Chu, Obama's choice for secretary of energy, and Lisa P. Jackson, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, are a one-two punch.

Chu has the passion and know-how to bring new energy technology to market, while Jackson – formerly New Jersey's commissioner of environmental protection – is likely to seek deep reductions in carbon-based emissions.

The United States will have to do some measure of both if it is to make real progress toward mitigating the threat of climate change and reducing its dependence on foreign oil.